Beds used in hospitals, other health care facilities and home care settings may have a base frame and an elevatable frame. Such beds also include a lift mechanism for adjusting the height of the elevatable frame relative to the base frame between a maximum elevation and a minimum elevation. It is desirable for the lift mechanism to be compact in order to make efficient use of the limited space between the base frame and the elevatable frame. Compactness may also assist the bed designer in achieving a sufficiently low minimum elevation of the elevatable frame. Compactness and the architecture or layout of the lift system may also provide space that bulky interframe components can occupy, particularly when the vertical separation between the frames is small, thereby further enhancing the ability to achieve a satisfactorily low minimum elevation of the elevatable frame.